Everything is Not What it Seems
by GokaiYellow
Summary: It all started with a week off and a trip to Disneyland. After literally running into a girl named Edie, Sam's hooked and his friends find her charming. But Jackie isn't so sure that's she's for real. The Othersiders
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Who's That Girl? Is She For Real, Is She Fake?

"Honestly guys," sighed Riley as he shook his head at the entrance to the parking garage, "I never thought we'd be going to Disneyland instead of hunting for supposedly haunted hot spots. KC rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. She shared a look with Jackie who felt the same way about this day trip. It was time for a break from the creepy encounters.

"Too bad Riley," KC nudged her good friend and fellow Othersider as he expertly maneuvered into a parking spot, "We took a vote. You lost okay? Deal with it!" Sam shrugged at the exchange going on in front of him while Zack fiddled with his video camera. The whole mess began with one simple offer. The network had offered the kids a chance to either a) Take a week off to have fun or b) Continue to shoot the episodes until the season was over. Riley and Sam voted against taking time off unless it was to look up out of state haunts. Jackie and KC voted for a break. This forced Zack to act as a tiebreaker which resulted in him agreeing to some time off. Riley was clearly upset while Sam didn't mind. He hadn't been to Disneyland in a long time with his friends, only family as a kid.

"Who wants to be the map person?" asked KC as she picked up a copy of the park map. Riley shook his head no and Zack mumbled something about wanting to film a day of fun for the heck of it. Sam raised his hand and accepted the crisp, colorful brochure. He opened it only to see a mess of numerous attractions and areas that seemed faintly familiar. He became so engrossed in the map that he didn't notice that he walked straight into someone else, head first. The glossy brochure tore in half as he stumbled to the ground with a thud. Oops.

"I'm so sorry," Sam apologized profusely as he straggled to his feet. He extended his hand to the fallen figure who grasped it and pulled herself up. The girl dusted herself off and met Sam's gaze. Blood rushed to his cheeks as soon as he met her eyes. Part of him wished that he could sink into the ground at that point for acting so lame.

"It's fine really," the girl politely answered. She glanced at Sam's torn map and cringed. "Ouch, I really ripped your map. Hold on a second." She jogged over to the turnstiles and picked up a new copy. Sam stood there completely frozen in place. He didn't know what it was about her. Maybe it was the strands of straight, dark hair that hid her right eye. Maybe it was the vivid shade of amber brown in her eyes. She broke his thoughts with, "Here you go. Sorry about that. Hey were you looking for a specific attraction?" The warmth in his cheeks flared up again at her question.

Out of impatience, KC stepped forward and remarked that they wanted to know what was a good strategy for roller coaster type rides and timing. As the girl explained the best method to KC, Riley observed Sam's face with amusement. Did he need to read Sam any further? Sam had a huge crush on this girl, big time. He nudged Zack in the elbow and pointed at Sam's dumbstruck expression.

"Take a look at Sam," murmured Riley as Zack followed his finger pointed at Sam. Zack observed Sam and blinked. Sam was so devoted to ghost hunting, he wished that he didn't have to go to school. Ghost hunting was pretty much his life and what he really enjoyed. To see him so caught up in one girl seemed so different, almost odd.

"Thank you again for your help...." KC started to say then paused. She didn't know this girl's name.

"Oh yes, I haven't told you my name yet," the girl quickly remarked, "How rude of me! My name is Kennedy, just call me Edie." KC smiled as she shook hands with Edie.

"I'm KC and these guys are my friends," KC introduced herself. She gestured to the rest of The Othersiders who stepped forward to make introductions.

Sam snapped out of his awkward trance and quickly made his way up to her. "Sam," he told her breathlessly, "It's very nice to meet you Edie." He reluctantly let go of her hand and stepped back as Zack briskly shook hands with her. He focused the camera on her face.

"You wanna say hi to the viewers?" he asked her as he focused in on her with the camera.

"What viewers?" she asked him puzzled. Zack put down the camera and began to explain to her who they were.

"...You see, we're ghost hunters," he finished up, "We started a show on Cartoon Network based on our group name, The Othersiders. I'm just taking footage of a fun, ghost-free day for our viewers to see on our website." Zack's explanation cleared Edie's confusion and she stepped toward the camera to say a brief hello to the viewers. As soon as Zack moved away, Riley took her hand and shook it solemnly.

"A pleasure to meet you Miss Sedgwick," he jokingly told her, "I'm Riley-the leader of this group." Edie smiled slightly at his joke and Jackie nudged Riley in the shoulder.

"I think she isn't diggin' the icon reference joke Riley," remarked Jackie as she grasped Edie's hand. "Ignore him. I'm Jackie." As soon as she touched Edie's hand, Jackie hid her shock- Edie's hand was ridiculously warm! It was almost too much to touch for a few lousy seconds. How could Sam just hold her hand for a long time? Yeesh! She kept her cheerful smile on her face as she released Edie's hand.

"Are you here all by yourself?" Riley asked her as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes," she replied, "I'm actually going to go ride Space Mountain right now."

"Hey!" piped up KC, "I almost spazzed- we're headed over to Space Mountain too! We can all go over!" Riley voiced his agreement and KC turned to face him. Just minutes ago before they met Edie, he couldn't stop complaining. "Wow," she remarked to him as they began to move, "You were eager back there, weren't you?" Riley shrugged and focused in on Sam who had his hands in his pockets.

"So Sam," Riley began as he caught up to him, "She's cute isn't she?" Sam's face flared up and he looked skyward.

"Yeah kinda," he stalled, "Why do you ask?" Riley smiled jokingly. Edie was way ahead of them with KC and Jackie, so she wouldn't hear this.

"Oh I don't know," Riley lightly remarked, "I was thinking about, maybe asking her out after today." Sam whipped around to face him and he looked Riley dead in the eye.

"You can't ask her out!" he blurted out. Bingo. This was the cherry on the top. Sam did like her, so much that he wouldn't let any guy other than him make a move on her.

Riley stretched his arms out in front of him as he replied, "All right then. I won't ask her out." Sam's tense shoulders relaxed and he let out a breath he had been holding in. He knew that if Riley asked her, he would basically have no chance of even getting her to see eye to eye with him.

"So," Riley began as he settled against the rail in the Space Mountain queue, "How old are you Edie?"

"How old do you think I am?" she asked calmly. Everyone studied her carefully and thought about it for a few seconds.

KC pondered her answer for a while. She seemed at least her age, 16 years old, maybe older. "I'm going to say 18 years old," she announced.

Zack studied Edie carefully before answering, "Don't get offended or anything but I'm gonna say 14 years old. Mostly its because of height." Riley disagreed strongly and he remarked that she was at least 16 years old.

"Height shouldn't play a factor in this," he argued, "Zack, before the show aired everyone thought you were 10!" KC smothered a giggle and Jackie smiled sympathetically at Zack. Poor Zack had always been small for his age which worked against him much of the time.

Sam thought about his guess. She acted level-headed and mature so he could probably place her at 17 years old. "17 years old?" he offered.

"I'm going to vote on 16 years," Jackie replied, "But now since we've guessed, what is the correct answer? Were we correct or way off?"

"KC was correct," Edie answered, "Sorry guys. Sam, if you had met me a few days earlier, your guess would have been correct. I turned 18 just 3 days ago." At first, he was stunned. She was 4 years older than he was! Good thing it wasn't 5, otherwise his parents would have been completely unwilling to let him date her let alone hang out with her.

"I'm guessing her age threw you off a bit," whispered Riley as the group made their way inside the ride's queue.

"At first it did," Sam confessed, "But it could have been worse. You know how my parents would act if I asked them about dating a 19 year old girl." Riley nudged him in the arm playfully.

"Well look at it this way," Riley began, "She's older and less dramatic than girls your age. She's probably going to take the relationship slowly if there is one. I doubt that she'll act clingy at all." Hmmm, well Riley was right. He had nothing to lose really. Edie seemed like a perfectly normal, kind-hearted girl. Come to think of it, she was dressed casually unlike some of the other girls he had passed in the park.

As they neared the front of the line, KC grabbed Jackie's elbow and claimed her as her seat buddy. Riley sidled up to Zack and agreed to sit next to him. Sam shoved his hands in his pockets and asked Edie if she didn't mind sitting next to him.

"I guess that leaves the two of us," Sam began, "But if you want to sit alone, I'll understand." Edie guided him to the 6th row and smiled at him.

"I'm fine with sitting next to you, really!" Edie reassured him, "Are you ready for this?" Sam lowered his lap bar and met her determined gaze.

"Definitely."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: I'm Definitely Paranoid

Sam wrapped his fingers around the Space Mountain photo that he had just purchased of him riding with his friends and his dream girl. K.C. had her eyes bulging out of her head and Jackie's mouth was open from screaming. Zack's glasses reflected the glare from the harsh camera light and Riley looked surprised. Sam had caught his breath in the photo from the exhilarating journey and Edie had looked quite giddy as she held onto her lapbar for support. Overall, it was a funny photo and something he certainly wasn't going to forget.

"Oh my gosh," laughed K.C. as she looked at Sam's copy, "I can't get over how funny we all look. Zack-you look like futuristic!" Zack chuckled at his portrait and Jackie flushed at how silly she looked screaming. Riley cleared his throat and asked if the group was planning to stand around or go have more fun.

"Yeah, yeah," mused K.C. as she consulted the map, "Let's see...Indiana Jones sounds cool with me. Oh and so does Pirates of the Caribbean. You guys, anything sound good?"

"I'm up for a rocky road adventure," piped up Riley enthusiastically, "Everyone cool with Indiana Jones?" Everyone agreed and the group set off for Adventureland. They made brief stops when some curious passerby recognized them and asked for their autographs and pictures. Many of the fans were girls who happily threw their arms around their favorite Othersider and demanded a picture with them.

"Riley!" screamed a red-headed girl with bright hazel eyes. She threw her arms around Riley who reddened as he returned the hug. K.C. turned her head as she pretended to have not seen that. The red-head whipped her head toward Edie and narrowed her eyes. "Is she your new member of the team?"

Edie shook her head no. "I just happened to run into them accidentally this morning," she replied lightly. The red-head simply turned her head away from Edie and bounced over to her friends who were shooting identical, curious glances at her. Who was she? What was she doing hanging with them?

"I'm so glad that's over," muttered K.C. under her breath. Riley pretended to have not heard her as they pushed past the slow moving crowd at Adventureland. Sam stayed close to Edie as she rapidly darted past the slower moving people. Suddenly, she put on her brakes and stopped a few feet short of the entrance.

"Forget it gang," Edie warned as she looked up at the long line snaking out of the main queue, "It's 75 minutes long and its not getting any shorter." Riley sighed unhappily and K.C. folded her arms across her chest. What a bummer!

"There's always Pirates of the Caribbean," Jackie pointed out. She began leading the way toward the entrance under the bridge when she too stopped short. Cast members were blocking the entrance way due to glitches with the ride.

"Sorry folks!" apologized one Cast Member, "We are closed right now and we do not know when we'll be back up and running." The group groaned at his words and Jackie grimaced.

"Now what?" K.C. sighed as she leaned up against the fence surrounding the Rivers of America. Zack who had been busy filming most of the time, spoke up.

"How about Haunted Mansion?" he inquired, "The line's really short and its air-conditioned in there." Riley agreed while the rest of the crew reluctantly agreed. Sure it had its benefits, but wasn't it kind of ironic that they were going to ride a fake ghost ride?

"I'm riding with K.C.," Riley announced as he grabbed K.C.'s elbow. Sam shyly stood next to Edie and shared a glance with her. This left Zack with Jackie. He zoomed the camera in on her face and Jackie tried to smile at him. It was rather hard to since Zack was so close to her with his camera.

"Can you maybe back that off of my face," Jackie muttered to Zack as they began heading inside the attraction. Zack blushed behind the lens and apologized profusely as he shut off the camera. She didn't feel like being center stage on Zack's camera today and she couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious of Edie. The shock from her too hot hand and her quiet mildness seemed somewhat foreign. Something about her didn't seem right...

"I can hold your hand if you get scared," Sam offered Edie. She turned to face him as they strode down the hallway lined with morphing paintings. He reddened and stammered, "Um uh, that is, if you want, I mean." Edie smiled at him and shook her head no.

"I'll be fine thanks," she replied politely, "But I appreciate your considerate offer." Sam smiled weakly as he slid next to her in the doom buggy. K.C. folded her arms as she took a seat next to Riley who shrugged slightly. Zack closed up his camera viewer and Jackie cringed as she sat down beside him. She didn't like the Haunted Mansion since she had gone on it as a kid and the hanging ghost host in the octagonal room had frightened her then. She shivered as the doom buggy began the long climb up the staircase.

As the cars carried them through the ride, Riley stifled a yawn and Zack jumped as a ghost figure popped out at him occasionally. Jackie clenched the support bar tightly and wished for the ride to end. She began to let out the breath she had been holding in as their car approached the hitchhiking ghosts.

K.C. patted the top hat of their ghost while Riley shook his head at her. Zack laughed as they had gotten the fat ghost. Sam never got a chance to see the ghost in his car as a powerful sneeze came on. His head jerked downward and Edie turned to face him. Jackie looked away from her ghost and froze at the rapid sight before her eyes. She could see Sam and the fake ghost in the mirror but not Edie. Edie's seat looked empty as if Sam had been sitting alone.

Millions of thoughts crowded Jackie's head. That had to be a trick. Or a terrible hallucination because what she saw couldn't be possible or real. Edie had no reflection. She hated to burst Sam's bubble but there was something horribly wrong about Edie. He needed to know. Jackie tapped him on the shoulder and Sam whipped around.

"Can we talk?" Jackie whispered to him.

"We are talking," Sam replied amusedly, "You don't have to whisper here." Jackie shushed him and waited until K.C. and Edie had gotten ahead of them.

"There's something weird about Edie," she cautioned him, "I just looked over at your car and she had no reflection in the mirror." Sam shrugged at her and offered the idea that she might have known magic tricks.

"I doubt that can be considered weird Jackie," he sighed, "I know we're not investigating right now but I can't call that credible. The mirror could be faulty because its an old ride or she might know magic tricks. That can be explained." Jackie opened her mouth to protest then Sam walked away from her. Zack joined her and reopened the camera.

"What was that back there?" Zack inquired as he looked up at her.

"Nothing," Jackie muttered, "All I can say is, I'm definitely paranoid."


	3. Chapter 3

Check out my forum for updates on when the next chapter will be up. Feel free to post any questions, shout-outs, or comments on there. Here's the link: fanfiction.net/myforums/Musicbando09/738306/

Chapter 3: I Know What You Are...Not!

Jackie tried to push aside her concerned expression as Sam suggested swapping cell phone numbers with Edie. K.C. handed over her cell and Riley shrugged as he removed his from his back pocket.

"I can't guarantee that I'm going to answer though," Zack warned as she punched in her digits into his phone, "I'm terrible about answering my phone."

"But you're always fussing with the other high tech equipment that we have back at headquarters!" K.C. argued with Zack, "That makes no sense that you don't answer your phone very often!" Zack ignored her as he took back his phone from Edie and handed hers back.

Jackie forced herself to look happy about swapping numbers with Edie but it was rather painful. She really didn't want to share her number with a stranger but since everyone else had swapped numbers, she certainly felt the pressure to follow suit. As Edie handed over her phone, Jackie noticed that Edie's looked dated. It was an early 2000's flip phone model from Motorola which had a faded color screen and no camera built-in. She hurriedly typed in her digits and handed the phone back to Edie. Edie took a little longer to type in her cell number into Jackie's phone book before she handed it back to her.

"Thanks for hanging with us today!" Riley thanked her, "It was really fun and you were very helpful to all of us. I swear that we got done so much more thanks to you." Edie modestly accepted his thanks and K.C. chimed in her approval too.

"It's too bad that you have to go right now," K.C. sighed unhappily, "I wish that you could stay longer." _I don't want her to stay longer_, thought Jackie irritably. Great, just great. Now K.C. thought that Edie was like her new best friend or something. The sooner she left the group, the better.

"Sorry guys," apologized Edie, "I really have to get going or else my parents will flip out and report me as MIA. It was nice meeting you all." She waved good-bye to the group and turned to leave through the entrance to Frontierland. Riley frowned as his stomach made a loud growling sound and he announced that they should go eat.

"I second that motion," Sam agreed as the group began heading toward New Orleans Square for dinner. Jackie whipped her head over shoulder to see that Edie was gone. They hadn't walked very far away from where they split and she was no where in sight. There was no way that she could have speed walked that far in such a short amount of time.

"Jackie!" called out K.C. to her friend, "Hurry up or else we won't get a table at the restaurant!" Jackie turned back around and ran to catch up with the group. Edie's quick disappearance seemed too strange to comprehend. She made a mental note to later check up on the history of mythical beings because obviously, Edie was completely far from human.

As soon as her alarm went off, Jackie sprang out of bed and began her in-depth research on the mythical beings. Munching on a breakfast bar, she clicked on numerous pages and ruled out several options. She couldn't be a banshee, witch, or a mummy for obvious reasons. She lingered on the thought of werewolf but then again, the general description of one was a figure who shifted against their will at the full moon into a half-man, half-wolf hybrid. Except for Stephanie Meyer's concept of Jacob Black's ability, no other pages claimed that werewolves had higher temperatures than the average human or possessed super strength. Edie was petite and there was no inch of muscle on her arms. That left her with two options, a vampire and a ghost/spirit. Since Edie was tan and emitted warm energy, that ruled out vampire. Even though vampires had no reflection, much of the reports confirmed that vampires had pale complexions due to lack of sun exposure. Edie had been wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt and capri pants so that killed the whole vampire theory.

A ghost/spirit? Jackie blinked at the pages she pulled up. Much of the accounts were accurate with what she knew about spirits and it seemed to match Edie's case. A spirit was a remain of a former person who had died and left part or all of themselves to haunt this world. Usually spirits were connected with certain time periods and other than seeing orbs or swirls of light, some accounts mentioned seeing physical appearances of a human body. Spirits thrived off of heat and often took it from energy sources around them. They had no reflection what-so-ever. Jackpot. This had to Edie- a spirit who had died fairly recently since she was familiar with popular dress and had a cell phone.

Jackie leaned back in her seat and frowned a little. This wasn't going to be easy convincing her friends about her findings. They were probably going to think that Edie was testing magic tricks and illusions on them as a means of impressing them. She needed to get hardcore, solid evidence like what Riley wanted them to gather for their investigations. She bit her lip and tried to think hard about how to approach this when her cell phone rang.

"Hey there!" chirped K.C. happily as Jackie picked up, "We're thinking of going to the beach today. How does that sound?" Jackie swallowed hard and tensed up. This could be a good opportunity to get her proof that she needed.

"Who's going to be there?" Jackie casually asked her best friend.

"Well, you, me, Sam, Riley, Zack, and uh Edie," K.C. ticked off the names, "Why ask silly?"

"Oh just wondering," Jackie lightly replied, "I'll see you there."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Truth is Blurry but The Picture's Getting Clearer

The sun shone gently from behind the thick cloud coverage and K.C. muttered to herself how she wished that the clouds would just scatter away.

"I'd rather be a bit tanner than show up at school this year looking like a pasty marshmallow," she mumbled to no one in particular. Zack fiddled with the video camera and zoomed in on K.C. settling into her beach chair.

"And we have K.C., the bathing beauty," he joked in a false announcer voice, "Folks, she belongs to the 50s with her carefree attitude and typical American values." K.C. quirked an eyebrow at him and picked up a handful of sand.

"If you don't get that camera out of my face," K.C. warned, "This will end up on your lens!" Zack grimaced and backed off. Instead, he focused in on Riley carrying over the canopy and grocery bags full of food and Sam walking alongside Edie. She had her arms folded and was listening intently to Sam's words. A little ways behind them came Jackie with her own beach stuff and a bit more pep in her step than the day before.

"I'm just glad you could make it," Sam cheerfully told Edie. She smiled lightly at his words and he reddened. He could feel his heart rate speed up at the sight of her cute smile. Geez, he felt like such a dork in front of her-why couldn't he stop blushing so much? His thoughts were interrupted by Riley waving his hand in front of his face.

"Hey Sam-I-Am," Riley interrupted his thoughts, "Can you help a friend out and set up the canopy with me? Zack's not in a position to put the video camera down so..."

"Sure! Sorry Riley," panted Sam as he broke out the trance and scrambled to his feet to help him. While the two struggled with setting up the posts, Zack zoomed in on Jackie who had made her way over to the group.

"Good morning Miss Zhao," Zack joked as he focused on her face, "Any reason for looking so upbeat today?" Jackie quickly hid her over excited face so as not to make Zack suspicious. She didn't feel like getting in a credibility debate with the second biggest skeptic on the team today.

"I'm at the beach and its a beautiful day," Jackie began lightly as she crossed her fingers behind her back, "Why wouldn't I be happy?" Zack shrugged and started filming Sam and Riley struggling with the canopy.

"Need any help?" Edie offered as she joined the two boys, "Seems like three's company might work in this situation." Jackie tried not to look obvious as she plunged her hand into her tote bag for her camera. She waited until Edie had taken the corner adjacent to Riley and snapped a picture quickly.

K.C. looked up at her from her chair and lowered her shades. "Hey you," she greeted, "Taking pictures already?"

"Why not?" Jackie defended, "It's a great time to start. Remembering the incompetent actions of our two head guys in the act of setting up a cover at the beach." K.C. tried to smother her giggle but it came out as a snort. Riley pretended to have not heard them as he loudly announced that the canopy was almost set up.

"Can't we just forget about it Riley?" Zack asked him as he watched Riley grow frustrated, "It's not that important, is it?"

"I'm incredibly pale here and I burn easily," Riley reminded him, "Even if I try to reapply sunscreen in a mannerly fashion, I still manage to get slightly burned. So that's why." Zack bit his tongue and didn't say anymore. Riley didn't need to get even more upset than what he already was. Sam shrugged at Zack and mouthed that it was pretty hopeless at this point.

Jackie came close to Edie and put on a friendly smile. "Hey, can I take a picture of you?" Edie nodded faintly as she plastered a wide smile on her face and let Jackie snap a shot. "Thank you," Jackie pleasantly told her as she walked off to the side. Zack quirked an eyebrow at Jackie's kindness. Just yesterday, she was acting slightly cold-shouldered toward her and today, she was treating Edie like they had been long-time friends. Sam, on the other hand, beamed. He knew that Jackie just needed a little bit of time to warm up to Edie and eventually see what was so great about her.

After 30 minutes of frustration, Edie had figured out that Riley had did the steps out of order and the canopy was assembled promptly following that. K.C. dodged Riley's arms as he tried to grab her to drop her into the ocean. Edie was chatting with Sam on the beach and Zack ran to catch up with K.C. and Riley's little episode. Jackie sat in her beach chair off to the side and pretended to look happy. Her hands shook a little as she snapped a candid of K.C. being tossed into the rolling waves by Riley. K.C. came up sputtering and she pushed Riley back into another set of incoming waves as revenge.

_Those shots looked great_, she thought. _I'll definitely have to e-mail these to K.C. when I get home. _She only had two images of Edie so far so she decided to grab a third one for safety. She turned toward where Edie and Sam were sitting and lifted her camera to her eye. Sam was busy looking out at the ocean while Edie had drifted her eyes away from Sam and landed them on Jackie's camera. Jackie shivered a little but forced herself to smile big and waved to Edie behind the camera. Edie smiled a little and began to turn back towards Sam. Jackie took a deep breath and counted to three before pressing the button and hearing the clicking sound.

"Someone's been on Candid Camera duty today," commented Zack from behind Jackie. She nearly jumped out of her skin and whipped her head around to see Zack standing over her space. He took a seat next to her and pointed to her camera. "Get a lot of good pictures today?"

"I definitely did Zack," Jackie replied somewhat cheerfully, "I just hope that they come out clear."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: She Just Took a Fall

Jackie waited impatiently as her pictures loaded onto her computer. Since she had taken numerous shots of her real friends to cover the fact that she was really trying to dig up info on Edie, the number of files on her camera card was a huge amount. _Picture 124, Picture 125, come on already! _She drummed her fingers impatiently on her desk and started scanning her room. The walls were painted a medium shade of purple with white trim on the crown molding. Pictures of her friends hanging out covered the walls by her bed. The bulletin board over her desk held many trinkets from specific memories. Like the necklace K.C. gave her when she went away on vacation to Hawaii and the Bahamas and the ticket stub from the LMAO concert she went to with Sam just recently. She smiled faintly at those memories and was startled out of her reverie by her computer's message that the pictures had been loaded to her desktop.

_Finally_, she absently thought as she clicked on the brand new file folder on her desktop. The complete set of 130 pictures popped up in a new window and Jackie heaved a sigh as she started organizing them into separate folders. One for e-mail pictures, the others for her walls, and the evidence photos of Edie. 15 minutes dragged by when she finished the organizing task. She opened the folder she created with photos of Edie. The first photo she pulled up was blurry and poorly taken which made it impossible for one to see anything out of the ordinary. She clicked on the second photo and studied it closely. Sam stood out very clearly in the shot since she had used the flash but Edie looked washed out and pale. Almost translucent. Her hand shook a little as she pulled up photo number 3. Edie's hair had been blowing in the wind with this shot, which meant that the photo had a slight blur to it. But it wasn't the fact that the camera had captured motion that sent chills down Jackie's back. Edie's hair close to her scalp started black but became fainter the farther down. The ends of her hair were completely non-existent and Jackie had clearly remembered that Edie's hair fell to her waist. Edie had been disappearing slowly under the camera lens.

Jackie sat there in silence, completely in awe of her observations. This was it. This had to be hardcore proof. The only problem was, why was Edie still haunting? Where did she die? What happened to her that lead her to her death? Her hand gripped the mouse tighter as she logged onto her Internet provider and typed into Google, "2000s California Deaths and Hauntings."

215 responses came up and Jackie began weeding out the useless ones. Much of her search had spit out the shooting at Santana High school which was 2001. Although Edie had mentioned Southern California as her home, she had not said that she was in Santee area. Aside from that, no records of a Kennedy popped up as one of the victims. Jackie started to get discouraged as time dragged by as she was getting no where. Nothing seemed to match Edie description wise or even seemed to fit. She looked at the clock on her computer and realized that she had spent 2 hours straight without taking a break, to look up plausible stories. She could hear her cell phone ringing, probably K.C. asking what she was up to at that point.

_I'll just look at one more page, _Jackie told herself as she clicked on the 69th link. A newspaper story from 2006 popped up and Jackie studied it closer. The headline blared "Young Freshman Shot in Courtyard of High School." Jackie raised an eyebrow slightly since Edie claimed that she had just turned 18. But then again, she could have continued to add another year to her age even as a spirit. The story briefly mentioned that a freshman girl had been found lying face down in the school courtyard before a set-up easel with brushes and paint tubes. The soccer coach had seen her body and assumed that the girl was sleeping until she came closer and saw the pool of blood the body was lying in. No gun or dropped clues had been found at the crime scene but there had been two strange things. The set-up had everything but a canvas there and it had been assumed that the victim had been painting when she was killed. But the canvas had gone missing and the police eventually gave up looking for it since no one knew what she had even painted. The second thing was that the girl's cell phone had been found near her with the message, "Tired of being what you want me to be. Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface" typed into a pending text message. No name had been released to protect the victim since she was a minor.

Jackie sat there stunned, completely frozen in place. The picture of the phone showed matched Edie's cell and incident took place in Southern California. They described the victim as 5'3" with black, waist-length hair, and of Asian descent. Could this be Edie? But why wouldn't she haunt the school? Did she just happen to be a wandering ghost?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Ignorance is His New Best Friend

Jackie waited patiently as Sam examined the photos carefully. His eyes darted quickly over the image in his hand for 10 seconds then he flipped to the next image. She could feel her breath slowing as she waited for him to say something about the images. Because, after all Edie wasn't real and for Sam to become infatuated with a spirit wasn't healthy at all. It was just plain weird. After 3 minutes of silence, Sam put the photos down on the table in front of them and looked up at Jackie. She folded her arms across her chest and took a deep breath.

"Well?" Jackie began, "What do think of them?" Sam ran a hand through his hair and he frowned. He didn't even know where to begin with this. Either Jackie was terrible at taking pictures at the beach or she was incredibly good at PhotoShop.

"Jackie," he slowly replied, "I don't know how to tell you this but, these pictures aren't really that great." He handed them back to her and she sighed unhappily. He wasn't getting it at all. He thought that she was asking for photography criticism not confirmation that his dream girl was dead.

"I'm not asking whether the pictures are well taken," Jackie patiently remarked, "I'm asking if you get what I was trying to tell you earlier about Edie's abnormal behaviors." Sam groaned as he held his head in his hands. It wasn't bad photography but a really bad case of jealousy.

"Jackie," he started gently. Jackie lost her patience with him once he switched tones. She wasn't crazy or a child! She knew what she saw was completely wrong.

"I knew you were going to be stubborn," Jackie burst out irritably, "I'm not crazy-I can see these things clearly. You're so blinded by love that you can't even see what's wrong with the picture. She's not alive anymore Sam! She's been dead for 4 years!"

"Jackie, are you sure that you're not acting out of jealousy?" Sam cautiously offered. Her face reddened and she angrily placed her palm down on the table.

"I'm not telling you this out of jealousy Sam!" she snapped angrily, "Why can't you see that I'm telling you the truth."

"I'm sorry Jackie, but you're asking me to believe that for the past few days, I've been talking to a very clear physical representation of a spirit," Sam stiffly remarked. Jackie opened her mouth to say something else but closed it. She could feel her blood boiling furiously just by looking at Sam's reaction.

How could he just brush those photos off like that? All she could do was move to another chair and sit facing away from Sam as K.C. came into the room. She opened up her laptop and started pulling up the name of the school where the body was found.

"Hey guys!" greeted K.C., "What's up?" Sam gave her a forced smile and Jackie briskly waved to K.C. while continuing to look up the credible places of investigation that week. K.C. frowned as she took a seat at the head of the table and watched both of her fellow Othersiders ignore each other. Something was up.

"Come on guys, someone's got to tell me what happened," coaxed K.C. She waited to see if anyone would speak up to tell their side of the story. Neither one of them even acknowledged her question. Zack joined the trio in the room and took a seat next to K.C. After saying a friendly hello to both Jackie and Sam, he received the same responses.

"What's eating them today?" whispered Zack anxiously. K.C. shrugged. She wished that they would just talk instead of sitting there in silence. Riley came in and cheerfully said a good morning to the group. He too, received the same cold replies but they didn't break his good mood.

"All right guys," he announced as he rubbed his hands together, "It's time to choose our next place to investigate." He motioned for everyone to gather around Jackie's laptop to look at the credible places to investigate. Sam stood farther away from the group so to avoid being too close to Jackie.

"Ooh how about this abandoned passenger train car?" K.C. mused out loud as she pointed to the image on the screen.

"I don't think that has enough information to research credibility-wise," Riley argued as he shot down the place. Jackie cleared her throat to offer a suggestion. It was now or never.

"What about this school?" she offered, breaking the silence. Riley leaned forward as he read the screen.

"Fallen Pike High School," he read out loud, "Hmmm...hey listen to this! There was a student who committed suicide in the gym locker room and sometimes you can hear his footsteps in there. The showers are known to turn on by themselves, screams can be heard in the locker room-"

"Whoa!" gasped Zack, "And a murder that happened in 2005 in their courtyard! Wow, what bad luck this school had! People say that the murdered victim wanders the courtyard and some have heard crying."

"And there have been reports of people hearing segments of Numb in that area but there's no music system installed there!" cried out K.C., "This is perfect! We have to check this out guys!"

Riley looked around at the group before announcing, "That settles it. This week, we're investigating Fallen Pike High School."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: It Was You

Zack blinked as the car pulled up to the school. A huge padlock was placed on the wrought iron gate to the entrance to the school and much of the landscape looked run-down.

"Is this still a working school?" Zack asked Jackie as she flipped through her notes. Jackie shook her head no as she turned to the exact page with the information about the current status of the school.

"No, they closed it in 2006 because many of the students were scared away by the paranormal activity here. A few accounts from students claim that they felt something push them in the locker room. In one case, a girl who had a broken leg due sports related injuries felt something push her around in the locker room and she was the only one around," Jackie grimly replied as she read from her notes.

"Yeah great," mumbled K.C., "This is what I go to school for: looking for paranormal activity that could exhibit violence towards us while looking in the locker room." Sam punched her in the arm playfully and tried to look brave.

"Hey, this could be a great place to catch some fairly fresh hauntings," he reminded her, "Think about it." Riley agreed silently as he wheeled the car into a parking spot.

"Let's go find a place to set up base camp," Riley murmured as he started striding toward the entrance of the school. K.C. shuddered slightly as she stayed close to Riley. No offense to the founders of this school but it looked pretty bad. Weeds littered the dying grass patches and the trees looked ready to keel over any second. Graffiti covered the sides of the buildings due to continuous vandalism. Jackie picked up her pace and pointed over at the center quad of the school.

"How about base camp over there?" she asked Riley. He studied the area and agreed by putting his backpack down on the grass. The rest of the team followed suit and Zack removed the cameras from their cases.

"Let's set up cameras in the shower room, both locker rooms, and the courtyard," Riley announced as cameras were unpacked and passed out. Zack nodded and strode off to install the courtyard camera. No way would he risk being the next victim pushed down the locker room stairs. Jackie grimaced and volunteered herself for the installation of the girls' locker room camera. Sam offered to install the boys' locker room camera which left K.C. with the shower room.

Riley drummed his fingers on the keyboard as he waited for the rest of the crew to radio in. K.C. responded first and adjusted the camera to hit all the showers at a diagonal. Jackie followed immediately after. Sam struggled to plug in the connector wires and finally got a connection. Zack studied the area and found the outlet near the snack bar. He cringed as the courtyard was stained in rusty brown blobs, probably from the murdered victim. He prayed that this spirit in this area wasn't a volatile sort like the locker room one.

"I think we should start a sweep of the courtyard and one in the boys' locker room," Riley whispered to the group. Jackie volunteered herself quickly for the courtyard and Riley offered to check out the locker room. Zack cringed and reluctantly offered his help for the shower room.

"I'll go with you Zack," Sam offered as he stood up, seeing the panic in Zack's face. Jackie grabbed Sam's arm and quickly mentioned that she needed his help in the courtyard. Zack swallowed hard and put on a brave face for Sam.

"I'll be fine dude," he lied, "You protect Jackie. But be prepared for a mess, the courtyard has some really horrible stains on the ground." Sam nodded firmly and K.C. stretched her arms outward. She had no complaints, she would be safe here at base camp.

Jackie tried not to scream as she spotted the old blood pool blobs on the ground. It was a mess. Smaller dots of dried blood were found several feet away from the larger blobs. How unlucky for the victim shot here! Sam grimaced and lowered his eyes to his sneakers. In an attempt to pull herself together, Jackie shakily tugged on Sam's arm and suggested that they begin some call and response. Sam fumbled with the voice recorder and clicked the Record button.

"Spirits, if you're here, we mean no harm," Jackie weakly began, "We're just here to get the truth. We want to ask you a few questions." She swallowed hard before beginning.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Were you an artist?" asked Sam as he scanned the area. Something moved out of the corner of his eye and he whipped his head around to see a shadow looming toward them. "Jackie!" he hissed as he pointed on the ground. Jackie jumped and began backing up in horror. Sam could feel his heart begin to race as the shadow came close to them. Then a person's form began to emerge out of nowhere. Sam blinked and saw that it was a girl. But it wasn't any girl: it was Edie.

"Edie?" he called out to her, "What brings you here to Fallen Pike?"

Edie looked past him at Jackie and answered hollowly, "So you found out?"


	8. Chapter 8

Thank you very much for keeping up with the chapters! **If you like my fan fiction, please check out my FictionPress account. .com/~truthseeker09 **

**I have some old poems up there and 2 current stories: Hanging in the Bates Motel and We're No Heroes. Thank you!**

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Chapter 8: I Became So Much More Aware

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked Edie as he ran up to her, "Jackie found out what?"

"I'm dead Sam," she grimly replied, "Jackie figured it out after some careful evidence and she is right. The reports never released my name because I was a minor and my parents pleaded that the information should never be shared." Sam stepped back, stunned. What?! Edie was a spirit?

Jackie came up behind Sam and patted him on the shoulder. Finally, the truth was out in the open. She hated to burst Sam's bubble but he had to know what he was getting himself into by dating Edie.

"I'm really sorry to disappoint you Sam," Edie quietly replied, "After all, you were always happy to see me. But my intention was never to hurt anyone from this experience." Sam nodded mournfully. He was completely crushed to hear that the dream girl he had been admiring was actually a ghost.

Jackie stepped closer to Edie and unfolded her arms. "So why were you at Disneyland that day we met you?"

"Even a ghost wants to have fun," Edie lightly offered, "It really surprised me that I would run into a team of ghost hunters but at the same time it almost seemed like fate." She paused a bit to let her words sink in.

"After I was found in this courtyard," she continued, "Very little work progressed in the case. Police gave up after 2 weeks and filed the report as a cold case. They didn't know what they were looking for and the murderer had covered their tracks very well. This left my parents distraught and really upset me as well." She studied the confused expressions and quickly added, "As my body died, my soul didn't. I continued to linger around the school to see what would become of the murder."

"So," Jackie slowly began, "You had been painting something when you were killed. What was it?"

"It was a fractured mirror with a distorted reflection of me," Edie recalled, "I saw the killer run off with my work. I think there were blood stains from where the bullet had rebounded on the canvas." Jackie shuddered at the thought of it.

"I'm not trying to seem rude Edie," Sam spoke up after a prolonged silence, "But can I have proof that you are a ghost? I can't believe that all this time I've been possibly talking to a very clear representation of a spirit." Edie raised her hand dragged it across Sam's face. He could feel his breath catch in his throat. Instead of feeling human skin, he felt sharp, cold air brush his cheek. He reached out his hand to touch her face but found that his hand went right through her.

"Whoa," Sam murmured, frozen in place, "I,I can't believe it. You're really a live spirit." Edie nodded and Sam swallowed hard. He was disappointed but at the same time, he was excited. How many times had they gotten that clear of an outline of a ghost during their investigations? He hadn't noticed that K.C. had suddenly radioed them.

"Uh guys?" she slowly began, "Why do I see Edie on the camera? And what just happened back there Sam?" Sam nearly jumped out of his skin and he quickly picked up his walkie talkie to respond.

"K.C., you're not going to believe this, but," Sam began, "Edie was the girl who was shot in this courtyard years ago."


	9. Chapter 9

To all my readers: I apologize for making you all wait for the ending chapter. Here it is! Please look out for more stories and check out my FictionPress account: truthseeker09

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Chapter 9: All's Well That Ends Well

"Oh. My. Gosh." K.C. murmured as she stared at Edie in amazement. The group had come together in the courtyard after Sam had mentioned that their new friend was actually the spirit who died in the courtyard.

Riley walked around her and studied her before asking her a huge question.

"Your hand went through Sam's face just now," he began, "But when we all shook hands with you, we touched a solid hand. How is that possible?"

"It's kind of difficult to explain but if I concentrate my energy hard enough, I can maintain a solid appearance for up to 6 hours," she slowly replied, "That's how I was able to sit on the rides and touch your hands."

"Do you get weak if the 6 hours approaches?" Zach asked her, "You hung with us for about 4 hours and you took off after that."

"You are correct," Edie confirmed, "I left because I was losing energy and was starting to lose grip on staying solid."

Riley ran a hand through his hair. He had never seen anything like this, ever, in his life.

"So uh," Zach nervously began, "About those ghosts who haunt the locker room?"

"One of them was my year," Edie quickly replied, "He died in sophomore year when some football players targeted him for supposedly being homosexual. He died from a loss of blood when everyone beat him up. That's why he's a bit violent-it hurts him that he's still tied to the school where people taunted him and killed him off."

Jackie shuddered at the thought of the poor boy dying at the hands of a full football team.

K.C., who had been silent up to this point, spoke up, "You mentioned your unfinished painting. What happened to it?"

Edie shrugged sorrowfully and told K.C. that the killer had run off with the painting.

"Which way did he go?" Sam suddenly asked her, "Do you happen to remember which path he took?" Edie thought about it carefully and pointed straight ahead of her.

"He or She, I couldn't tell because they wore a hood, took my painting and went straight, then went right. Everything after that is unknown since I was starting to lose sight after being shot," Edie recalled as she used her arm to gesture the killer's path.

Jackie swallowed hard and clenched her fingers into a tight fist. She felt sorry for Edie. Here was a perfectly normal girl who had worked hard on something then had her life brutally taken away from her and her work stolen before her dying eyes.

"Let's try to find it," she firmly told the group. She pointed to a row of classrooms and began directing everyone to take a room to search in. Riley wasted no time sprinting over to the first room to begin the search. Zach followed with Sam as they entered the second room. K.C. walked briskly over to the third room and Jackie armed herself with a flashlight to search the fourth room.

"I am touched by your act Jackie," murmured Edie as she followed Jackie inside the fourth classroom, "But why the change of heart?"

Jackie turned to face Edie. Edie was right, she was very suspicious of her from the very beginning. Everything she did screamed something was wrong with her. But after hearing what had happened to Edie and bursting Sam's love-struck bubble, she needed to set things straight. Finding the painting was the very least thing she could do for Edie.

"Because...because what happened to you was unfair," Jackie thoughtfully replied, "You had a normal life until it was robbed from you. And you haven't done anything but be nice to us. We owe you a hand in looking for your lost painting." Edie beamed at her and warmly thanked Jackie.

Jackie began searching through cupboards and under tables but found nothing.

"Anything guys?" she radioed to the rest of the group. A chorus of no's answered back immediately.

Edie who had been watching Jackie search spoke up all of a sudden.

"Wait a second," she slowly announced as she pointed to the white board, "Something is off about that board." Jackie's head jerked upward as she followed Edie's pointing finger to the left white board. Edie was right, the board seemed crooked and loose. Even though the school was falling apart, there was something off about the white board. Jackie could feel her heart pounding wildly as she stood up slowly and walked to the white board. She quickly radioed Riley for help since it was going to be heavy. Riley dashed in, seconds after her call with Sam, Zach, and K.C. following behind.

Riley and Sam grabbed one side of the board and K.C. helped Jackie with the other. The board groaned and cracked in half before falling onto the floor, revealing what looked like a hidden door in the wall.

Sam shakily reached for the handle of the door and pulled with all his might to open it. The door slowly dragged open and blew out a cloud of dust. Riley turned his flashlight on and shone it on the inside of the hidden door. His light caught a slight shine of acrylic

paint and he reached into the hidden space for the item. Sam caught the tail end of the rectangular canvas and threw off a dust cover on top of the work.

"Oh man," gasped Edie, "This is it! After all this time and I never thought to check this room." Sam smiled as he blew the excess dust off the work and handed it to her. Edie's ghostly hands accepted the painting carefully and she beamed at the group.

"I cannot thank you enough Othersiders," she whispered happily, "All I can say is, I will miss you."

...

2 months later...

"Back to work again," sighed K.C. as she settled into her desk chair and began studying the new batch of locations on her computer. Jackie joined her and plopped a newspaper article down in front of her.

"I guess our investigation helped someone else out too," she remarked brightly, "The police reopened Edie's case and were able to use the improved DNA technology to gather up blood and bullet samples to figure out an end to her case. They might have a suspect too."

"Really?" Sam joined in as he read the bi-line, "That's awesome news. Good for Edie, justice will be served."

Riley and Zach entered the room carrying a large package at that moment and placed it carefully on the table.

"What's in that Riley?" K.C. asked him as she peered at the well package container.

Riley shrugged as he pulled a pair of scissors out of the pencil cup and began slicing away the tape on the edges of the box.

"We will find out in a few minutes," he answered her smartly. He folded back the flaps and removed packing paper that covered the item within the box.

"Is that...us?" Jackie questioned as she peered at the unframed painting in the box. Riley lifted it from the container and held it out for everyone to see. It was a group painting of The Othersiders. Jackie and K.C. were side by side smiling. Zach had a gadget in his hands that he was fiddling with. Sam was smiling brightly at the viewer and Riley looked authoritative in a good way.

"This is amazing," breathed K.C. as she studied the work, "Was there an address on the box?"

Riley shook his head no. "I found it on my porch this morning before coming here."

Sam smiled as he studied the painted version of himself. "I think I know who did this," he said with a smile, "Thank you."


End file.
